This invention relates to rigging plates used for anchoring multiple rigging components and in particular to a rigging plate which combines the advantages of a gated carabiner and a conventional rigging plate wherein the gates are in an inwardly opposed facing orientation so as to protect the gates from impact to thereby avoid their inadvertent opening.
It is often desirable to releasably mount multiple rigging components such as pulley systems or descent devices to a single rigging plate which is itself anchored for use in climbing, in rescue operations, rope access work, or in any other application wherein multiple sets of rigging may be more efficiently anchored by the use of a single rigging plate. Rigging plates per se are known in the prior art, for example such as those manufactured by Petzl of Crolles, France, and Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. Such rigging plates are exemplified by the Petzl Rigger(trademark), model P61, and Paw(trademark), model P63 rigging plates. These rigging plates are rigid structures, which may be elongate, having a single or multiple anchoring apertures along one edge of the plate and a spaced apart array of rigging component apertures along an opposite edge of the plate. Typically an anchoring device is attached to at least one of the anchoring apertures. Rigging components may then be attached to one or more of the rigging component apertures, for example a descent device may be attached one of the rigging component apertures and a pulley system or multiple pulleys to provide a multiple sheaved pulley system may be mounted to the other rigging component apertures. In some instances, for example, in rescue operations, a main line and a belay line may be mounted to the rigging component apertures, so long as the anchor apertures are anchored by multiple anchors so as to not compromise the use of a belay line as a backup line to the main line.
In the use of conventional rigging plates, a carabiner is mounted through an anchor aperture. This allows the rigging plate to pivot or rock back and forth as different loads are applied to the different rigging devices in the spaced apart rigging device apertures while maintaining tension on the anchor carabiner safely along its major axis.
Typically, conventional carabiners such as the Petzl William Lock(trademark), model M24, William Spinball(trademark), model M25, or William Ball Lock(trademark), model M26, carabiners may be employed to releasably mount rigging components to the rigging component apertures on the rigging plate.
Other carabiner designs are known in the prior art, such as the double carabiner of Kloster which is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,943 which issued Aug. 24, 1999. Kloster discloses a carabiner which, instead of having a single asymmetrically mounted gate as in conventional single carabiners, has a pair of symmetrically mounted oppositely disposed gates, oppositely disposed on either side of a central shank. What is neither taught nor suggested by Kloster, and which it is an object of the present invention to provide, is a combination rigging plate and multiple carabiner which functions as both a rigging plate and carabiner. Were the design of Kloster so employed, Kloster""s double carabiner frame would twist so as to align the tension in the anchoring line with the tension in the rigging component line, thereby bringing the two lines dangerously close to contacting the gates. This is dangerous in that the gates of carabiners are not designed to withstand the loading. Rather, the loading is meant to be taken up by the shank and opposed facing legs of the carabiner. Thus if the double carabiner of Kloster twisted so that the lines contacted the gates, the safe loading capacity might be compromised.
In summary, the gated rigging plate of the present invention includes a rigid member having first and second opposite ends, first and second rigid arms mounted to the member, and extending away from the first end of the member from opposite sides of the member adjacent the second end of the member. The first end of the rigid member has at least one anchor aperture formed therein. The first and second rigid arms having corresponding first and second distal ends. The first and second distal ends are inwardly turned in opposed facing relation so as to define corresponding opposed facing first and second rigging component receiving cavities between the first and second rigid arms and the second end of the member.
The first and second rigging component receiving cavities have corresponding opposed facing first and second entryways. Corresponding first and second gates are pivotally mounted to the second end of the member for releasably closing the first and second entryways respectively. A web may extend between the first and second ends of the rigid member and between the first and second rigid arms.
Advantageously, the first and second gates are independently resiliently urged, by resilient biasing means, into closed positions. In their closed positions they releasably close, respectively, the first and second entryways. The first and second gates are each pivotable between open positions and the closed positions. In the open positions the first and second entryways are opened to allow passing rigging components into the first and second rigging component cavities.
In one alternative embodiment, the gated rigging plate may further include an elongate stem rigidly mounted to the second end of the rigid member so as to extend along, generally co-axially with, an axis of symmetry of the rigid member. The stem thus extends between the first and second rigid arms. The elongate stem may have a T-shaped distal end defining oppositely disposed third and fourth rigging component receiving cavities. The third and fourth rigging component receiving cavities have corresponding third and fourth entryways closed by corresponding third and fourth pivotally mounted gates. The third and fourth pivotally mounted gates may be pivotally mounted to the second end of the rigid member.
Further advantageously, the first and second distal ends are notched for mating latching therein of corresponding free ends of the first and second gates.
In one aspect of the invention, the rigid member, the first and second arms, the first and second entryways, and the first and second rigging component receiving cavities are symmetrically disposed about the axis of symmetry of the rigid member.
In a further aspect, the first and second rigging component receiving cavities are elongate along corresponding major axes. The major axes coincide with tension force vectors between an anchor mounted to one of the anchor apertures and a rigging component mounted to the rigging component receiving cavity. The first and second gates may be substantially parallel to the corresponding major axes when closed across the first and second entryways. The minor axes of the first and second rigging component receiving cavities may be perpendicular to the corresponding major axes and extend through the first and second entryways.
In a further alternative embodiment, the first and second rigging component receiving cavities and corresponding the first and second gates are part of an array of rigging component receiving cavities and corresponding gates enclosed between the first and second arms. The first and second arms, in all embodiments of the present invention, provide protective shielding of the gates from side-on impact. Thus the first and second arms are not necessarily linear or curved substantially as illustrated and referred to below, but may without intending to be limiting, be of any appropriate protective shape.
In a still further alternative embodiment, the first and second arms may be pivotally mounted to the rigging plate by pivoting means.